Author: TheStateLine

New Delhi, Jan 21 (IANS) Experts in Pakistan have slammed the expansion of corporate farming and land acquisition, lamenting that such government schemes are displacing farmers and privatising land and water resources, particularly in Punjab and Sindh.A report in viacampesina.org detailed the outcome of the Pakistan Kissan Rabita Committee (PKRC) meeting in Lahore which announced nationwide mobilisation against corporate farming, land grabbing, and the deepening agrarian crisis.Around 170 delegates representing 35 farmers’ and rural workers’ organisations from across Pakistan reviewed the country’s political, economic, agrarian, and environmental challenges.They blamed “IMF-driven neoliberal policies for rising input costs, falling farm incomes, and increased pressure on small farmers and ...

Colombo, Jan 21 (IANS) Highlighting that Buddhist minorities and other religious communities in Bangladesh are facing severe repression and violence, the Sri Lanka–Bangladesh Buddhist Solidarity Front has urged Buddhists across the world to unite for protecting their rights, especially those of indigenous Buddhists in the Chittagong Hill Tracts, a report has stated.Addressing a media briefing in Kandy recently, the Front’s Secretary, Shastrava and Tripitaka scholar, Kavissara Thero of Nuwara Eliya, said that the future of Buddhist indigenous communities in the Chittagong Hill Tracts under significant threat, Sri Lankan media outlet Ceylon Wire News reported.Venerable Kavissara Thero stressed that attacks on Buddhists in Bangladesh is not a recent phenomenon and recalled the 2012 inciden...